S blog featuring retro and vintage subjects of a great varitety

Posts Tagged ‘Humour’

Well, maybe not quite. He ha almost no head above they eyebrows and ears enough for three. But he’s got a good set of shoulders. But as costume required he put on his Sunday bests and off to the photographers he went. He looks like a pretty strong bloke so I hope the photographer managed to keep from laughing. If not this might have been the last picture he took.

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Just the other day I came across a rather hilarious site called “kim jong-il looking at things” and I felt that if you manage to find 72 images of the demented old fart looking at something you really deserves to get noticed, to be mentioned and have links to your site posted so that the world at large can enjoy the fruits of you labour.

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Benny had few friends, although colleagues have insisted that he was never lonely but content with his own company. He never married, although he did propose to three women—one the daughter of a British writer—but was turned down by all three. Although he owned the family home in Southampton, he never owned his own home in London, nor a car. Hill preferred to rent a place to live rather than buy one, first a large double apartment in Queensgate, London for 26 years until 1986, and then a small flat in Teddington, Middlesex, within walking distance of the studios of Thames Television where he recorded his shows.

His mother died in 1976 at age 82, and Hill kept the family house at 22 Westrow Gardens in Southampton as a shrine to her, not changing a thing. Before his move to Teddington, whilst looking for somewhere else to live in the Richmond area of London, he lived at 22 Westrow Gardens. Travelling was the one luxury Hill permitted himself; he became a francophile, enjoying frequent visits to France, and in particular Marseille, where until the 1980s he could enjoy anonymity in outdoor cafés, on public transport, and socialising with local women. Besides mastering French, Hill also spoke enough German, Dutch and Italian to get by when travelling. Such holidays were often gathering missions for comedy material, some inspired by foreign surroundings, or borrowed from regional acts.

Between the end of World War II and the dawn of television, Hill worked as a radio performer. His first appearance on television was in 1951 on a show called Hi There. Recurring players on his show during the BBC years included Patricia Hayes, Jeremy Hawk, Peter Vernon, Ronnie Brody, and his co-writer from the mid-1950s to early 1960s, Dave Freeman.

He remained mostly with the BBC through to 1968, except for a few sojourns with ITV station ATV between 1957 and 1960 and again in 1967. He also had a short-lived radio programme, Benny Hill Time, on BBC Radio’s Light Programme from 1964 to 1966. In addition, he attempted a sitcom anthology, Benny Hill, which ran from 1962 to 1963, in which he played a different character in each episode. In 1964, he played Nick Bottom in an all-star TV film production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Benny Hill’s film credits include parts in nine films including Who Done It? (1956); Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), in which he played the relatively straight role of the Toymaker; The Italian Job (1969); and, finally, a clip-show film spin-off of his early Thames shows (1969–73), called The Best of Benny Hill (1974). Hill’s audio recordings include Gather in the Mushrooms, (1961), "Pepys Diary", (1961), "Transistor Radio" (1961), "Harvest of Love" (1963), and "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)" (1971). He also appeared in the 1986 video of the song "Anything She Does" by the band Genesis. Hill’s song, "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)", on the Best of Benny Hill album made the UK chart as Christmas number one single in 1971.

Hill’s health began to decline in the early 80s. He suffered from heart problems since the late 80s, and on 24 February 1992, doctors told him he needed to lose weight and recommended a heart bypass. He declined and a week later was found to have renal failure. Benny Hill died at the age of 68 on 20 April 1992.

On 22 April, neighbours called the police, who then found Hill, dead, sitting in his armchair in front of the television. On the day Hill died, a new contract arrived in the post from Central Independent Television. Hill’s cause of death was officially called coronary thrombosis.

Hill was buried at Hollybrook Cemetery near his birthplace in Southampton on 26 April 1992. In October 1992, following rumours that he was buried with large amounts of gold jewellery, an attempt was made by thieves to exhume his body. However, when authorities looked into his open coffin the following morning, there was no treasure. Consequently, it is not generally known whether anything valuable was inside. Hill was reburied with a new coffin lid and a solid slab across the top of the grave.

Hill’s fortune was estimated at £10 million. His only will, however, dated from 1961 and left his entire estate to his parents, both of whom had since died. Next in line were his brother Leonard and sister Diana, both of whom were also dead. This left his seven nieces and nephews, among whom the money was divided. Allegedly a note was found among his belongings assigning huge sums of money to his close friends, but because it was neither signed nor witnessed, the note had no legal standing.

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She: I’ve joined the fur and feathered leauge. He: Is that your uniform ? Where’s the feathers ?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a British charitable organisation which works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment through public awareness campaigns, petitions and through the operation of nature reserves throughout the United Kingdom. The RSPB has 1,500 employees, 12,200 volunteers and over 1 million members (including 150,000 youth members), making it the largest wildlife conservation charity in Europe. The RSPB has a number of local groups, and maintains over 150 reserves across the United Kingdom.

History:

The charity was founded in 1889 by Emily Williamson at her house in Didsbury, Manchester (now in Fletcher Moss Botanical Garden), as a protest group campaigning against the use of great crested grebe and kittiwake skins and feathers in fur clothing. Originally known as "the Plumage League", the group gained popularity and eventually amalgamated with the ‘Fur and Feather League’ in Croydon, and formed the RSPB.